Law

Law affects every part of our lives, and as such is an exciting and relevant subject to study. Bristol’s Law degree is both vocational, providing all the preparation you need for a legal career, and academic. As a large law school, highly rated for both teaching and research, we are able to offer a wide variety of optional units. We have well-established courses for mooting and debating, and provide practical legal experience through our Law Clinic and Innocence Project initiatives. There are also exciting opportunities to study overseas.

Law courses

Single honours

Joint honours

Why study Law at Bristol?

Many students select Law with a view to a legal career or employment in related areas. Others see it as an opportunity to learn about fundamental elements of our society. Our course certainly offers good analytical training - the ability to ‘think like a lawyer’ is much prized.

The academic study of Law involves the ability to understand and logically apply legal concepts, principles and rules; to assimilate, sift and organise large quantities of data; and to offer reasoned, constructive criticisms of the law from a reforming standpoint. Whatever your plans, the study of Law is of great value in its own right.

All applicants must sit the National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT). Details are available on the LNAT website or the Law School website.

What kind of student would this course suit?

Law seeks to reconcile tensions and to integrate a wide range of different, and indeed, competing interests in society. It stands at the intersection of a number of academic disciplines, as well as being at the heart of some of the most interesting questions of what it means to live as human beings in society. Accordingly, Law suits a very wide range of students, and our applicants come from both Humanities and Science backgrounds. Above all, Law suits the student who wants to understand better why society and the world is ordered the way it is, and the student who seeks to constructively criticise these legal and social arrangements. It appeals to students who want to engage with the world - and change it for the better - whether subsequently through a legal career, or not.

How is this course taught and assessed?

Law is taught and assessed in a variety of ways, reflecting the challenging nature and scope of the subject. Teaching is conducted through 50-minute lectures, 50-minute small-group tutorials and 100-minute seminars in larger groups. Our 20 credit point units are assessed either by one three-hour examination, or two pieces of coursework (each with 2,500 word-limit). Each piece of coursework is equally weighted. Sometimes students are required to write an essay involving their own research, such as the compulsory final year research project.

What are my career prospects?

Bristol Law graduates are highly sought after in the employment market. Most graduates enter legal practice and are particularly successful in securing training contracts with City solicitors’ firms and pupillages at barristers’ chambers, as well as in key provincial centres such as Bristol. The course also provides an excellent foundation for working in a variety of other sectors including business, the Civil Service and the media.

What are the best things about studying at Bristol?

I would say that Bristol is a great city to live in and the University is a brilliant institution to study at. It’s particularly useful that some of the tutors are practitioners in the fields they teach as this means that they can help us relate the area of law studied to its practical application.

Carol Njiru
LLB Law